Last week Lancaster City and the state announced a project to bring a little country into the urban environment - by building "green" roofs on 6 city structures.  These roofs will consist of soil layers with plantings, giant flowerboxes that, when completed, will insulate the buildings beneath and interact with the sun's energy to respirate CO2 into the atmosphere - something most urban areas can't boast.

The total square footage of rooftop to be converted is 79,000, divided up between the following buildings slated for renovation:

• The New YMCA on Harrisburg Avenue.

• A Renovation of the Bare Building, (former police station), 202 N. Duke St.

• National Novelty Brush Co., 505 E. Fulton St.

• Penn Stone, 190 W. Ross St.

• Two Dudes Painting, 744 Poplar St.

• Box Company Flats, 225 E. Grant St.

Funding for the project is coming from the Energy Harvest program launched by Pennsylvania in 2003.  Gov. Ed Rendell announced the granting of funds on November 13th.  Mayor Rick Gray, in the meantime, has pledged to make the city greener and this program will move it in the right direction.  The energy grant to be shared by the 6 locations will be approximately $480,000, which is $80,000 on average per building.  No word on who exactly will administer the funds...

Soil roofs are nothing new, and the benefits have been well-known to alternative energy advocates and builders exploring the "green frontier".  The layer of soil above the structure keeps the living spaces beneath cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.  Living plants atop absorb toxins and improve the atmosphere in general, as well as curbed stormwater runoff to waste.  Urban areas such as Lancaster have an "heat island effect" from which inordinate amounts of heat radiate, and projects such as this will mitigate some of that (although to a minor degree, I imagine - it's a bit of an experiment).  Millersville University is assigned to monitor the results of the project and any benefits derived from it.

Also last week, Franklin & Marshall College received a $202,000 grant to install a 26.6 KW solar array on the roof of the Hackman Physical Sciences Lab.  Of course, an array of that size would only power 2 typical homes, which is a fraction of the energy usage of a college lab building.  Can I have a grant to put on my roof too?  Oops, nope, the state hasn't offered grants to residential citizens yet.  Hats off to F&M anyway, for bringing some PA money back to Lancaster.  Your tax dollars at work!  The total grant by the state was $5.4 million to 26 projects across PA, so I think Lancaster did OK by getting $682,000 of that.

I'll be interested in the progress of the "green roof" project.  Check back often...